Thursday, March 20, 2014

Cosmos Show embroiled in Legal Controversy with Churches

Dozens of churches in the United States are collectively
suing the producers of Cosmos, the reboot of the television show previously
hosted by Carl Sagan, for “stealing the Christian shtick.”

The filed complaint was obtained by the press and it alleges
that the first episode of the show portrays Giordano Bruno as a Christ-like
figure, while the second episode sanctifies the DNA molecule.

According to the complaint, “Bruno, who contended that the universe
is infinite and that it includes a plurality of worlds, is shown as being
ostracized by church officials in Italy and elsewhere, just as Jesus was
hounded by the Pharisees. Bruno’s poem in which he speaks of spreading wings
into space is used as a pretext to pose an animated representation of Bruno like
Christ on the cross. Bruno is burned at the stake instead of crucified, but the
effect is to make him a martyr for science.

“But martyrdom is our shtick,” the complaint continues. “We
may not have that whole dying-for-the-greater-good thing trademarked, but
everyone knows that Jesus is our brand.”

The second episode of Cosmos speaks of the nucleus in each
cell as life’s “sanctuary” and describes the genetic code as “ancient
scripture.” According to the lawsuit, “That’s a half-assed comparison of DNA to
the Bible. If you want the whole ass, you read the King James version, not a
bunch of squiggly nucleotides.”

In what many are calling a brazen move, the producers of
Cosmos are countersuing the churches for failing to live up to their part of
the social contract.

“These Christians are thinking too much,” reads the countersuit.
“They should leave the thinking to scientists. The job of American Christians
is to breed, not to think. Otherwise, we’ll end up like France or Germany with
a declining fertility rate due to the elite secular lifestyle.

“Religious folks in developed societies, who are otherwise
woefully out of place, can even teach their children whatever supernatural
nonsense they like. To get a good job, those children will have to attend
college and that’s when their opinions will be corrected by secular experts.
That’s the modern deal.

“The only reason Christians are tolerated in the manifestly
secular US is because they breed like rabbits, just as Muslims do. But the time
they spend speculating about the meaning of a television show like Cosmos is
time they should be using to keep our economy growing, by raising families.”

Asked about the legal wrangling, the new host of Cosmos,
Neil deGrasse Tyson, said that atheistic writers have made impish allusions to
God for decades. “Stephen Hawking wrote a book called God Created the Integers.
The Higgs boson was called the God particle. Einstein said he wanted to know
the mind of God. It’s often just pandering to the American population, which is
unusually religious.

“But those who’ve read Carl Sagan know that the universe is
a wonderful place. We naturalists want to introduce Christians to a new
religion, one that’s based on science and on the sublimity of nature. That’s
what the show Cosmos is about.

“Of course, Christians will say that nature
worship is Satanic. So there they go again, thinking—as if that’s what they’re
good at. We settled that centuries ago, didn’t we? The Age of Reason is the Age
of Science. Leave the thinking to scientists, Christians, and just get on with keeping
our birthrate above that of other nihilistic modern societies. Don’t think so
much. Just breed.”

Yes, I think MacFarlane is also producing the show and he's an outspoken atheist. I'm certainly enjoying this version of Cosmos. It's well-made and the show is doing the American public a service, advocating explicitly for naturalism at the philosophical level. The show isn't just listing scientific discoveries, but is justifying the naturalist's values and philosophical principles. Plus, it's just a cool show.

Check out the RWUG Paperback Anthology on Amazon

Check out my novel on Amazon (American and European sites)

Follow RWUG by Email

Recent Comments

About the Author

In this blog you'll find my philosophical rants within the undead god. What on earth is the "undead god," you ask, and why do I rant within it? Read on and find out or just look at how the planet and all of nature mindlessly evolve, setting the stage for our existential predicament. In the big picture, who I am doesn't matter at all and when I write here I write mostly with the big picture in mind. But if you're curious about some of my interests, see my blogger profile.